Peace Caravan Will Depart from San Diego

LOS ANGELES.- Over 60 organizations based in the United Sates will support the caravan that the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity plans to undertake this summer from the border of Mexico and the United States to Washington, D.C.

These organizations for migrant, civil, and human rights announced yesterday that they will support the caravan, led by the Mexican activist and poet, Javier Sicilia.

The activity is aimed at highlighting the problems or effects generated by the war on drugs in Mexico and by US drug policies, as well as the border crossing by displaced Mexicans that flee the violence.

“Today we see a new type of migration to escape the terrible violence…violence that has claimed so many lives,” said Enrique Morones, founder of Border Angels, an organization known for leaving water for migrants in the border crossing zones. “Therefore, we are joining this caravan. We do not want even one more death, we want peace, justice, and dignity,” he added.

The caravan will leave San Diego – bordered with Tijuana, Mexico – on August 12 and will end in the capital of the country after passing through Texas, Arizona, and Chicago. It will be supported by organizations based in the United States such as the National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities, Drug Policy Alliance, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Presente.org, Washington Office on Latin America, and Global Exchange.

Sicilia formed the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity last year as a response to the death of his son, Juan Francisco, at the hands of organized crime. It will be the first caravan from the Movement in the US after having done two in Mexico.

The violence generated by organized crime in Mexico has left over 47,500 deaths all over the country between December 2006 and September 2001, according to the latest official sources.

Some civil groups have reported that with 2012, the death toll could be almost 60,000.